 "From immigration to abortion, this is where Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton stand")
In a fiery final debate on Wednesday night in Las Vegas, Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton clashed on a range of issues, such as immigration, dealing with the Islamic State, abortion, gun control, taxes, and healthcare.
Now that the third and final debate is over, here is a ready reckoner on where the two presidential candidates stand on key issues:
1. Taxes
Economic policy has played a major role on the campaign trail. Candidates have sparred over the role that the tax code should play in economic growth, creating jobs and solving the social security problem.
Hillary Clinton aims to address the problem of income equality by increasing taxes on the wealthy. Clinton has proposed a 4 per cent surtax on incomes over $5 million and has also called for higher tax breaks for healthcare and education spending for middle-class families.
Donald Trump wants to reduce the number of tax brackets to three, lower the corporate tax rate, eliminate the estate tax and increase the standard deduction for individual filers. He wants to cut the US corporate tax rate to 15 per cent from the current 35 per cent and suggests that investing in infrastructure, lowering the trade deficit and removing regulations will boost manufacturing and job creation.
2. Foreign policy
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Russia
Hillary Clinton has vowed that she will stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin and work with European allies to deter Russian aggression in Europe and beyond. She has called Putin a dictator. “I know that he is someone that you have to continually stand up to because, like many bullies, he is somebody who takes as much as he possibly can unless you do,” she said.
Donald Trump has stated that he holds Putin in higher regard as a leader than President Barack Obama. Trump has pledged to promote “easing of tensions and improved relations” with Russia and has said improved relations from a position of strength is “absolutely possible”.
ISIS
Donald Trump during the third presidential debate, held on Wednesday, suggested that US-backed forces in Iraq had only tried to retake the ISIS position in Mosul because Hillary Clinton was running for president. Trump claimed that the ISIS only took Mosul because US forces in the region left under the Obama Administration. On defeating the ISIS, he said, “Nobody would be tougher on the ISIS than Donald Trump. Nobody.” But Trump has offered few specifics of how he will defeat them, saying revealing his plan would tip off US enemies.
Hillary Clinton has taken a different approach and outlined three major policy points for defeating the ISIS: take out ISIS strongholds in Iraq and Syria; dismantle the global terror network; and harden defences at home to prevent attacks.
Syria
Donald Trump called for more troops in Syria and has repeatedly sought more military spending.
Hillary Clinton has said the option of putting troops on the ground in Syria “is off the table”. Instead, she will work with allies to force the ISIS out of Iraq and Syria.
3. Gun control
According to gunviolencearchive.org 13,472 deaths (October 20, 2016) occurred due to gun violence in the US.
Hillary Clinton argued for tighter regulations on gun ownership. Clinton said she understood and respected the tradition of gun ownership but there should be reasonable regulation with comprehensive background checks.
Donald Trump defended the right to bear arms strongly, saying Chicago, which had the toughest gun laws in the US, probably had more gun violence than any other city. In the past, Trump had said the problem is with the system, not in gun ownership.
4. Abortion
Hillary Clinton is a strong supporter of the US Supreme Court judgment in Roe v. Wade that recognises the abortion rights of women. She said the judgment guaranteed a “constitutional right to a woman to make the most intimate--most difficult in many cases--decision about her health that one can imagine”.
Donald Trump said he was pro-life and suggested indirectly that he would like to see the judgment overturned.
5. Immigration
Donald Trump's remark throughout the campaign trail has appalled and angered many. In the beginning, he called for a total ban on Muslims entering the country, but during the last round of campaigning Republican vice-presidential candidate Mike Pence said Trump did not hold that view anymore. Persisting with his plan to build a wall along the border, Trump said drugs were pouring in through the Mexican border and people were coming in illegally, and these had to be stopped. Describing Clinton's amnesty policy as a “disaster”, he said it was unfair to all the people who were waiting in line for many years for citizenship.
Hillary Clinton countered Trump, saying the US is a nation of immigrants and Trump's view did not keep with that idea. She said there were 11 million undocumented people and 4 million American citizen children and she did not want to rip their families apart. Instead, Clinton proposed to work on immigration reform within the first 100 days with a path to citizenship. She promised to remove the violent elements in society that were causing trouble.
6. Healthcare
Donald Trump did not provide a clear roadmap on healthcare but criticised Obamacare, saying it was destroying the country and businesses and he would repeal it.
Hillary Clinton said Trump's proposal to cut tax would result in a $20 trillion national debt and that would have dire consequences for Social Security and Medicare. She said repealing Obamacare would make the Medicare problem only worse. Clinton emphasised she had a plan to bring down Medicare costs with more resources and smarter decisions.